Malawi draw in Ethiopia, fail to grab a place in Afcon finals

Malawi national football team, the Flames failed to go through to the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations finals in Equatorial Guinea after settling for a goal less draw away to Ethiopia on Wednesday in their final qualifier.

Flames hopes dashed

Mali booked their ticket in Group B after beating 2-0 Algeria which had already won the group.

Head coach for Malawi, Young Chimodzi, said it was “disappointing” to miss out on qualification.

“We fought hard but it was not meant to be. It’s disappointing,” said Chimodzi.

Chimodzi made one change in the squad that beat Mali 2-0 last Saturday replacing out of form Frank Gabadinho Mhango with Gastin Simukonda but had to rest Simimkonda for Frank Banda.

46 thoughts on “Malawi draw in Ethiopia, fail to grab a place in Afcon finals”

Let’s be honest here; this team is horrible at football! This is not about match-fixing, or the gods of football, or whatever excuse you can come up with. Just admit the fact the Flames are a terrible football team and that’s why they can’t win, fullstop. And also, we need to change their name to the Ashes. Because that’s how cold this team really is.

In my opinion Malawi has done better in their last 2 games against Mali and Ethiopia. With our bad history of losing away games, drawing with Ethiopia at their home ground is an achievement. Its very unfortunate that the no 1 team in Africa – Algeria- failed to beat Mali, elements of match fixing probably.

Lessons to learn: Lets start with the best squad in the next campaign – This is going to u team officials i.e coaches etc

I do not think blaming Algerians for losing to Mali is good, firstly we as Malawians are not good when it comes to play soccer, this is a fact, second Algerians are not afraid of Malawi because the flames is pathetic nation where football is consenrned I am sure every team would love to play the flames at the finals knowing they are a kicking bag. If rely Malawi needed to proceed it would have beaten Ethiopia at least by a good margin so regardless of who would win between Algeria and Mali the burn less flames would have qualified by being the best loser, but they failed to beat Ethiopia and you say Algeria this and that HELL NO. It does not work that way, it is every team for its self work up my fellow Malawians we are not good in soccer this is a fact. Soccer is not played by mouth or talking but doing the actual job on the pitch which we failed. We also need to start planning in good time and make sure our players are taken care of. If this is not met then forget qualifying for AFCON and keep on dreaming the dreamers in football.

If Kinnah was coach the comments here would have been very different. Tumbuka this tumbuka that resign this fire that. The fact remains, flames have failed to make it where Kinnah succeeded. What do u say?

The Boys need a pat on the back. They reacted a little too late tho. But Hey, its all good. The result of Mali – Algeria game can be categorized as match fixing by Algeria. They didn’t want Flames to progress. Too bad; this kind of practice is totally against fair play and competition. FAM should lodge an official complaint to CAF. It is illegal to field an understrength team in such tournaments.

Same old same,just accept that the woes will never end till football is developed. Malawi is still a minnow by all standards and lack of a sound financial structure plus underdevelopment in football infrastructure and players themselves complicate the whole situation.

The country has hardly invested in football especially the youth,and therefore,it is hard to produce quality players.Malawians are always immersed into too much expectation and hype from players that have been poorly developed.

Losing a game at home is a ‘minnow factor’ and that’s subtraction of valuable points from the expected ones that guarantee qualification.Malawi’s home loss to Algeria has proved costly to the qualification ambition but is forgivable because Flames are not one of the elite teams in Africa due to the country’s underdevelopment in sports and football in particular.

As previously suggested, the team ought to be disbanded paving way for a new generation that has to go through a series of development including European clubs’ attachment.With such kind of development in mind,the target tournament participation should be the AFCON 2019 and World cup 2022 in Qatar.This would sound viable because the country can’t keep on spending on qualifying games that take it nowhere.After all,Malawi struggles economically.

Flames tried their best, playing away and at high altitude but I feel our failure to beat Algeria at home in spite that we dominated the game and created a lot more chances than our opponents has cost us the qualification. We need to polish up our finishing for future competitions. Let us hope we can still make it as best third placed team.

guys, I watched this game and Malawi tried their best playing away. we created tangible chances, dominating here and there but we were unlucky not to score a goal. our goal keeper was just in best form and made excellent saves, another save from the line. these boys must be commended. there was nothing we could do honestly. we couldn’t score 6 goals after Mali had beaten Algeria 2-0. zinangovuta kuti kuchiyambi kwa league yi tinapanga mphwayi. next time the govt should support these boys from the beginning. I give kudos to theFlames

May be we can learn thru this.God loves Malawi bt we dnt know.Most mawians players are out & doing well there instead of usng them 2dfend their land we get things 4granted.As ucan see we lost many chances from the back games.No wonder 2dy we fail 2make it.My congrants should go 2 all players 4 acceptng 2join Malawi after embarassment.My index finger is pointng u coch wth ur selfish get a lesson here.Learn 2wok wth anybdy who produsng qualty results.Bhaviour dousent matter in football.

You tried guys. I wish you had a committed government on your side to allow you prepare just like our friends do. Democracy has robbed this country glorious moments by putting in leaders who only think of their own happiness. How i miss those moments in 1978, 1979 and 1989. The leader then knew how to preserve national pride. These days we fail in everything we do
We can’t even pay teachers.

Well done by forcing a draw. Nanga titi chani pot we were relying on results of Mali and Algeria which has gone against our wishes? We tried our part but as usual, satana watikhalilanso pa msana. Next time folks.